First Time Testing Water

[BlueShinobu]

so i just tested my water for the first time ive had it, which is about 5 months and was wandering if the levels are normal or not

Nitrite - .25-1
Nitrate - 0
Ammonia - .5
PH - 8.2

thanks guys

 

[-SPB-]

Your nitrate readings seem a bit odd as you should most likely always have a reading above zero. What sort of test kit are you using.

 

[rabbut]

No, it's mot I'm afraid

Ammonia and nitrite should be zero at all times. If there are fish in the tank, nitrate should be above one, but below 100. The pH is OK though. Are these liquid kits, or dip strips? Also, what size tank do you have, and what fish in it?

Dip strips, are IMO about as accurate as asking a friend that does not have an interest in fish to tell you what the values are, without the aid of a test kit Liquid kits are the way to go. Overstocking or under filtering are two other things that may caurse the abnormal readings. A five month old tank wit no aditions recently shoud have ideal values, unless there is something wrong.

HTH
Rabbut

 

[BlueShinobu]

im using an api liquid test kit, well all of my fish have whitespot or ich or both so could that be interfearing?

 

[rabbut]

im using an api liquid test kit, well all of my fish have whitespot or ich or both so could that be interfearing?

It could if you are using treatment. API have been getting some bad press for accuracy recently also. Is there an LFS near you that don't use API, who could verify the results?

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Luketendo]

Nitrite - .25-1 - Needs to be 0
Nitrate - 0 - Seems very odd this is usually extremely hard to get 0..
Ammonia - .5 - Needs to be 0
PH - 8.2 - Most common fish prefer 7.